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Should 102.9 consider a return to Adult Contemporary?

M

MarkW

With 102.9 The Wolf sporting all time record low ratings in the March survey (and not so hot ratings for at least 18 months now), and with Adult Contemporary stations generally being on fire ratings wise in many large & major markets across the country, should Audacy consider resurrecting Lite 103?

Personally, I think they'd be fools to keep the country format around. Buz'n 103's ratings were already slipping when CBS Radio went away, but under Entercom / Audacy ownership, the station has been steered straight into an iceberg.

How much longer before KS 95 draws a serious competitor from the more traditional side of the A.C. spectrum?
 
As a large company, it is important for Audacy to focus on national strategies and implement cost savings by implementing these wherever possible. But I think they have done this at the expense of the local markets/ratings. They seem to think that a one-size- fits-all approach is the answer to success, while seemingly ignoring local differences such as in Miami (ethnic/cultural differences), New York & Chicago (musical preferences) and markets such as the Twin Cities without an abundance of full market signals. The ratings have been trending strongly toward informational and classic music programming even before Covid-19 began becoming a factor. I am not sure what the age breakdown is for these formats I have mentioned above, but one would think a sports talk format or even a simulcast of WCCO (or a hybrid of the two) would bring in larger numbers than Country is at the present time. Add in the numbers that KS 95 is experiencing, and it seems clear that a challenge to the leaders is in order. I don't think they can afford to sit around and wait for Country to regain its popularity.
 
I was surprised Audacy / Entercom didn't scoop up either 95.3 or 96.3 for the purposes of gaining an FM simulcast partner for WCCO. I am not yet covinced a 100,000 watt blowtorch should be used for that purpose, at least not yet.

Given the tremendous success Mainstream AC is witnessing in most major markets around the country, and given the fact in many instances such stations have taken a big chunk out of competing Hot AC stations' ratings, it amazes me the format hasn't been brought back in the Twin Cities.
 
MarkW said:
I was surprised Audacy / Entercom didn't scoop up either 95.3 or 96.3 for the purposes of gaining an FM simulcast partner for WCCO. I am not yet covinced a 100,000 watt blowtorch should be used for that purpose, at least not yet.
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Given how cheaply both went, I was kind of surprised by that, too. At some point, I tend to think we're going to see Audacy swap to either expand in the Twin Cities or exit the market entirely. Cumulus would seem like a pretty natural swap partner, but, if a deal with Cumulus were to happen, Audacy would probably be getting out of the market. Cumulus has a couple of small clusters in markets of a similar size, and Audacy wouldn't seem to have anything big enough that it would want to swap out of for the Cumulus cluster.
 
Do the juicy sales demographics country music now appeals to (women 25-44 especially, with even a decent showing in 18-24) outweigh the not-so-great "beauty pageant" numbers The Wolf is now getting? Would a standard or soft AC format or a sports format improve both ratings and revenue, or would it bring in an unacceptable number of older, less spending-happy, listeners? Obviously, sports will drive off most of the women regardless of age, but is there a noticeable age gap between AC and country with female listeners? I assume Soft AC is a non-starter because of its appeal to unwanted 55+ listeners, many of whom were in their 30s or even 20s when much of the music used in the format was originally popular.
 
CTListener said:
Do the juicy sales demographics country music now appeals to (women 25-44 especially, with even a decent showing in 18-24) outweigh the not-so-great "beauty pageant" numbers The Wolf is now getting? Would a standard or soft AC format or a sports format improve both ratings and revenue, or would it bring in an unacceptable number of older, less spending-happy, listeners? Obviously, sports will drive off most of the women regardless of age, but is there a noticeable age gap between AC and country with female listeners? I assume Soft AC is a non-starter because of its appeal to unwanted 55+ listeners, many of whom were in their 30s or even 20s when much of the music used in the format was originally popular.
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Would Audacy even want to compete with KS95 for the AC numbers? Or would an Alt be a better cross sell with Jack?

They could also use a sports-heavy WCCO-FM to compete with KFAN, although one would think if they were going to launch that, they would have done it at the start of the Twins season.

As to an owner wanting to expand their cluster here, Cumulus would have to divest of the 105’s to do that. Not saying that’s impossible, just not sure they’d want to do that in a weak radio market. Hubbard could also look to expand if Audacy wants out of the market, which is certainly possible.

Then again, why would Audacy have invested in returning the Twins to WCCO if they intended to exit the market? I realize things have changed since they did that, just something else to ponder….
 
LOL @ 102.9 The Wolf.

100,000 watts + country music in a midwestern city = 1.7 share!

How HORRIBLE must Audacy's programming department be to achieve such a PATHETIC result? Bear in mind, this same station as "Buz'n @ 102.9" used to grab 3.5, 4 even 4.5 shares all the time!

TSL is absolutely dreadful, too. Appears to be the worst, by a pretty substantial margin, of any major FM in the market.

Flip the darn station to Adult Contemporary already.
 
MarkW said:
I was surprised Audacy / Entercom didn't scoop up either 95.3 or 96.3 for the purposes of gaining an FM simulcast partner for WCCO. I am not yet covinced a 100,000 watt blowtorch should be used for that purpose, at least not yet.

Given the tremendous success Mainstream AC is witnessing in most major markets around the country, and given the fact in many instances such stations have taken a big chunk out of competing Hot AC stations' ratings, it amazes me the format hasn't been brought back in the Twin Cities.
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But the thing is, WCCO does so well. I have many friends who say that WCCO on FM would be an amazing idea. They'd probably gain listeners on FM instantly. But I would also love if Lite FM returned, but the question is, could Lite FM even make it? They'd probably have to model it more like Love 105 to make it work nicely. And I really don't want to see Love go at all.
 
Straight up AC pulls healthy female 25 to 54 numbers in many markets these days. That format recovered as the popularity of Hot AC cooled.

Love 105 in its first run earned better ratings when it was programmed in more of a traditional AC mold.
 
MarkW said:
Straight up AC pulls healthy female 25 to 54 numbers in many markets these days. That format recovered as the popularity of Hot AC cooled.

Love 105 in its first run earned better ratings when it was programmed in more of a traditional AC mold.
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Correction: Love did better in there first run as Soft AC/Oldies from 2007-2012. They tried to fill WLTE's gap by flipping to AC and that flopped almost instantly. But Sports Talk was really a better decision I guess. Glad they are back.
 
The ratings peaked at a 3 share in the PPMs after the station had turned away from Soft AC/Oldies in favor of a more traditional AC sound (in the wake of WLTE's demise). Then, inexplicably, the plug was pulled in favor of third-rate Sports radio.

I think we both agree the current format is far, far better than the Sports format!
 
MarkW said:
The ratings peaked at a 3 share in the PPMs after the station had turned away from Soft AC/Oldies in favor of a more traditional AC sound (in the wake of WLTE's demise). Then, inexplicably, the plug was pulled in favor of third-rate Sports radio.

I think we both agree the current format is far, far better than the Sports format!
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If AC was getting a 3 share on those three small signals, than I'm sure it would work great on 102.9.
 
I know 102.9 was starting to fail as an AC station... but it sounded like in there last few years, nobody put any effort into 102.9 at all. I'm sure they could've gotten their ratings up if they put some effort into it.
 
NBRadioMN said:
I know 102.9 was starting to fail as an AC station... but it sounded like in there last few years, nobody put any effort into 102.9 at all. I'm sure they could've gotten their ratings up if they put some effort into it.
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According to some "in the know" people at the time, WLTE's demise was specifically orchestrated so Mick could justify to corporate that a change to Country was needed. He spent years over at Clear Channel/K102 and wanted revenge. Not sure if that was true, but I remember news footage at the time where Mick looked pretty happy to launch "Buz'N"

I know it's been 10 years since WLTE flipped and market dynamics have changed, but I find it interesting that WLTE had over a 3 share when they flipped, and KMNB currently has around half that.
 
mnradiofan said:
According to some "in the know" people at the time, WLTE's demise was specifically orchestrated so Mick could justify to corporate that a change to Country was needed. He spent years over at Clear Channel/K102 and wanted revenge. Not sure if that was true, but I remember news footage at the time where Mick looked pretty happy to launch "Buz'N"

I know it's been 10 years since WLTE flipped and market dynamics have changed, but I find it interesting that WLTE had over a 3 share when they flipped, and KMNB currently has around half that.
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Wow. That is really interesting. Is he still employed at KMNB? I assume when they flipped it to Country, Mick was PD?
 
mnradiofan said:
According to some "in the know" people at the time, WLTE's demise was specifically orchestrated so Mick could justify to corporate that a change to Country was needed. He spent years over at Clear Channel/K102 and wanted revenge. Not sure if that was true, but I remember news footage at the time where Mick looked pretty happy to launch "Buz'N"

I know it's been 10 years since WLTE flipped and market dynamics have changed, but I find it interesting that WLTE had over a 3 share when they flipped, and KMNB currently has around half that.
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And he had John Lassman there doing his dirty work, deliberately fecterating the station by messing with the playlist. CeeLo Green’s “Forget You” is NOT even remotely “lite”. Yet there it was. It ended up sounding like a not-so-lite hot AC, and got their asses handed to them by KS95. Then Anselmo contacted corporate and was like “our ratings suck, we need to flip”. He wanted to put his revenge project specifically on 102.9 to be right next to K102, to benefit from those trying to tune in 102.1 accidentally tuning in 102.9 instead, discovering a new option. Otherwise it might have been Jack being sacrificed for it.
 
aspric said:
And he had John Lassman there doing his dirty work, deliberately fecterating the station by messing with the playlist. CeeLo Green’s “Forget You” is NOT even remotely “lite”. Yet there it was. It ended up sounding like a not-so-lite hot AC, and got their asses handed to them by KS95. Then Anselmo contacted corporate and was like “our ratings suck, we need to flip”. He wanted to put his revenge project specifically on 102.9 to be right next to K102, to benefit from those trying to tune in 102.1 accidentally tuning in 102.9 instead, discovering a new option. Otherwise it might have been Jack being sacrificed for it.
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John Lassman knows what he is doing... I'm sure he was just following the AC charts as any other radio station would. I remember the CeeLo Green song being pretty big and it definitely fits with the AC sound of 2010/11, so it being big on AC stations across the country would not surprise me. Not to mention, AC today isn't very "lite" at all, and hasn't been for a while, what was most likely AC maybe 40 years ago is now Soft AC. But I can agree that Lite FM was stale in it's last few years, and needed a revamp. But it seemed they had given up all hope in an attempt to get CBS to believe that they really needed to flip it to something else. I'm sure Mick had more influence than we know, he to begin with had a higher position than Lassman being GM... I'm sure IF IT IS TRUE that the playlist being screwed with intentionally to kill it, it was probably Mick screwing with Lassman to get his way.
 
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